Running Through The NFL Season

It was a fall Tuesday and Lindsay Jones, an NFL beat reporter for USA Today, was in the middle of a tempo run around Wash Park in Denver, Colorado, when her phone started to buzz…a lot. She pulled it out of her pocket and realized her boss was urgently trying to get in touch with her. Wes Welker, the Denver Broncos’ wide receiver, had been suspended for failing the league’s drug policy.

“I’m standing off to the side and I called and got it confirmed. I called in (to the paper) and dictated in a story and then I finished my run,” she said. Welker, a valuable member of the Broncos teams, had quickly become a fan favorite and this suspension was a shock to most in Denver.

And while sports headlines don’t stop when reporters have training to do, following the teams and traveling to games has an added bonus: Lindsay gets to run in cities across the country and the world.

“When I’m on the road, I can explore different places. If I’m gone for five days, sometimes I’ll have that Saturday so I’ll spend days trying to find the best place to run,” she said. She Googles and crowdsources her more than 19,600 Twitter followers to find sweet trails (and breakfast spots) in such places as Cleveland, Cincinnati, Seattle, New Orleans, Charlotte, San Francisco, and many others. During the 2014 NFL season, she ran almost 500 miles in 20 different cities from the last week of July (the start of training camp) through the Super Bowl.

Coming across a great trail system definitely has its perks, but eating press box food (notorious for being unhealthy) and getting on 6 a.m. flights can make running on a regular schedule a real struggle. So when Lindsay hits those ruts, she turns to the Runner’s World Run Streaks[4]. She first started her running streaks on Thanksgiving in 2013; she ran four miles in the morning and then went to cover the Raiders vs. Cowboys game that afternoon. She ran for 70 days, forgoing the Super Bowl media party to get in her daily miles and running in the Amsterdam airport on a layover to the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. (By far the weirdest place she’s ever run.)

“I was talking about how compulsive I was about my streak at that point, and I was so sad that it was going to end,” Lindsay said, as she and her coworker drank Bloody Mary’s at the airport bar. Her coworker suggested she run in the terminal, and after a little bit of prodding, she changed into her running clothes. (She had packed them in her carry-on like all experienced travelers do.)

Jones ran for 20 minutes in the airport, dodging people and getting weird looks. Her streak continued for a few more days, but after the grueling trip covering the Olympics, where she often worked 18-hour days, she called it off. Her body needed to recover.

But when the 2014 summer streak came around, she couldn’t help but jump back in it. And this time, she lasted for 265 days. Not only do these streaks help her run consistently, but also running helps her writing. “I think a lot when I’m running. Sometimes I’ll write stories in my head or I’ll work through stories. Or I’ll make lists of people I need to call when I’m done,” she said. “I feel like I work better and I run better when I have both of those things going on.”

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